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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Exceedingly good, Mr Kipling My Boy Jack The Nonentities, The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster **** First let me say this is perhaps the best
amateur production in terms of actor performance I have seen in a long
time, unfortunately it was also the most frustrating. So let's get the bad news out of the way with a request to any director and, if not for this particular production, then in the future for this company or any other that even though the script may call for it, please consider carefully the use of interfering sound effects and superfluous musical additions. While they may be considered as adding to the
atmosphere, often they only get in the way of a good actor. This production suffered greatly for this reason
either in excessive volume, low quality, or simply completely
unnecessary. A 20 minute or so loop of poor quality canon fire audio
that ran through an entire act and a critical part of the play, was
distracting enough to have me wanting to get up and go and ask for it to
be stopped. So the good news. The Nonentities production of
My Boy Jack contains some of the best performances I have seen on any
stage this year. The play centres on Rudyard Kipling's apparent struggle
to balance his family needs against those of King and country and his
want to have his only son serve dutifully in the First World War.
David Haig's play is a complex yet well written
work that touches upon a range of issues that, even today, any family
who has an offspring in the serving forces might have to face. Tom Rees plays the part of Kipling and, to use a
phrase common to an American friend of mine, he is `awesome'. He carries
with him a genuine and touching paternal instinct for his son and
daughter yet a real and convincing stoic attitude of a father and his
place in the Victorian age. He was equally matched by Vilma Watson as Carrie Kipling his American wife. Her performance grew in confidence as the play progressed. It culminated in a blistering and emotional confrontation with her husband when the fate of their son was finally revealed. Full marks to Rees and Watson who were not afraid to fully lose their composure in the final moments of the relationship breakdown. Another gripe I had was the long interludes
between scenes changes some lasting five or so minutes. With such
a long time to wait not only did the good acting work disappear into the
interlude but it gave rise to random audience conversation - and I
sincerely hope the job interview of the daughter of the woman behind me
goes well next week. This was my first visit to The Rose and very
impressed I was too. There seems to be a focus on quite ambitious and
elaborate set building and My boy Jack was no exception which
accounted for some of the long scenery changes. However if the strength
of the actors here in this production is representative of the overall
standard, I would encourage directors to be more minimal in their
approach thereby possibly reducing wait times. Two choruses of us all
singing Pack up Your Troubles were about as much as I could
take. I would rate this production very highly if it
were not for the audio intrusions and in truth these were only an issue
as they interfered with the actors who were first class. It's a
real case for less is more and hopefully in the future I will get to see
this very strong company in a less frustrating setting. To 19-05-12 Jeff Grant |
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